


Sarai

by PrairieChzHead (msannomalley)



Series: G-Force: Redemption [3]
Category: Battle of the Planets (Cartoon), Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman | Science Ninja Team Gatchaman
Genre: Angst, Mild Language, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:00:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27249940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/msannomalley/pseuds/PrairieChzHead
Summary: Mala's personal bodyguard is confronted with someone from her past.
Series: G-Force: Redemption [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/380524





	Sarai

The fog was persistent, but at the same time, it left Sarai feeling a pleasant drowsiness. It was better than clarity. Clarity hurt because on those fleeting moments when things were clear and she thought she could remember things, the searing pain began and it radiated out from her temples and behind her eyes. Clarity made her feel nauseated sometimes. Clarity was a hot knife in the skull.

Lady Mala could keep the pain and the nausea away. “You have to trust me,” she’d told Sarai.

Sarai had no memories. She couldn’t remember how she ended up as Lady Mala’s personal security guard. Sarai knew that it was an honor to serve. Her lack of memory troubled her. Occasionally, Sarai overheard a few Galaxy Girls talk about their pasts. _Why can’t I remember mine?_

Once, before Clarity hit her hard, Sarai thought she didn’t belong on Spectra, but she didn’t know why she would think that. As far as she knew, Sarai had always been destined to serve Lady Mala. Presently, her mistress was assigned to be the Spectran Delegate to the newly formed Federation. Sarai didn’t have much of a head for politics and didn’t care. Politics wasn’t part of her job.

Lady Mala was to meet with a member of the New Terran Resistance. Sarai didn’t understand why this was even necessary.

“Why are you negotiating with rebels?” she asked her mistress.

“Because,” Mala patted the younger woman’s hand. “We have to play nice before we can play at all.”

Mala always spoke in cryptic, fanciful terms. Sarai wanted to ask for clarification, but she decided against it. Mala would just give her more cryptic answers.

The meeting was to be held on the planet Vesta, a planet which swore allegiance to neither the Federation nor to Spectra, at the Rigan Consulate in Vesta’s capital city. Sarai was dressed to intimidate. She wore a one-piece black leather outfit with black boots and black gloves. Her hair was loose and not pulled back or put up and she wore no covering on her head or face. Once in a while, she had a hazy vision of seeing the world through a yellowish tint.

Sarai wore a knife strapped to her right leg and she carried a gun at her hip. Her black uniform was skin-tight. Men stared at her when she walked by. People stared at her in general, mainly because she was always near Lady Mala, but the males stared the most. Sarai wasn’t sure what to make of this. There was a part of her the reveled in the hungry looks she received from them. Another part of her was extremely uncomfortable with the attention, but she couldn’t figure out why she felt this way. 

“Don’t pay any mind to them,” Mala told her once. Sarai hadn’t brought up the subject, but Mala had noticed her bodyguard’s discomfort one day after an important meeting. “Their brains are between their legs,” she added disdainfully. “Men are only good for one thing, my dear.”

“And what is that, Your Grace?” Sarai asked.

“Using them to get what you want,” Mala replied. The scowl on her face was replaced with a smile. “My dear, you have a lot to learn about the male of the species.” Mala patted the younger woman’s hand in a way that made Sarai feel stupid. “They only want one thing from females.” The older woman looked at her young bodyguard, waiting for Sarai to ask the next question. Sarai kept silent.

“Pussy,” the older woman said finally. “Men will woo you, then when they win you, they will use you up and then throw you away.” She held up a warning finger. “Don’t ever let them do that to you.”

The Spectran delegation arrived first to the meeting. Sarai stood behind Mala’s chair. Her mistress was kind to her, but Sarai was left with an unsettled feeling after the last conversation. Sarai had no reason to believe that Lady Mala would lie to her, but she also had this feeling that Mala wasn’t exactly accurate, either. Sarai thought that there had to be men out there who weren’t like what Mala claimed them to be. Even so, Sarai couldn’t be certain. Nothing was certain in her life except for the present moment.

The delegation from the Federation was comprised of two people, the Ambassador and his assistant. The Ambassador was a burly man in his forties. His assistant was a woman who looked to be around Sarai’s age. The Ambassador smiled at the Spectran Delegation. The assistant bored holes into Sarai with her eyes.

Sarai wasn’t required to pay attention to the actual dealings between Mala and the Ambassador. Sarai was more interested in the assistant, who had pulled out a paper tablet and a pen and was writing things down. At one point, the assistant looked up at Sarai and her stare was hard and not friendly in the least. “Traitor,” the other woman muttered under her breath just loud enough for Sarai to hear.

The remark confused Sarai. Who was a traitor? Was this woman calling Sarai a traitor? Why? Sarai was loyal to her mistress and did her best job to ensure that Lady Mala was protected.

Mala heard the woman, too. She gave the assistant a nasty look, but the assistant wasn’t intimidated by Zoltar’s sister.

“With all due respect,” Mala said icily to the Ambassador. “I would rather your assistant keep her opinions to herself during these crucial negotiations.”

“Crucial?” the assistant snorted. “Negotiations? This whole meeting is a joke. You and your kind should be rotting in prison. After what you did to my--.”

“Ambassador,” Mala snapped. “Please remind your assistant of proper diplomatic protocol.”

“Proper?” the assistant said angrily. The young woman stood up and her boss, the Ambassador, seemed powerless to stop her. “You have the nerve to lecture _me_ about what’s proper? You’re filth. Nothing but Spectran filth!” Then she looked up at Sarai. “And you...you’re worse than filth. You’re nothing but a fucking traitor. You’re scum.”

Sarai reacted to the hateful tone. She stepped forward and put a hand to the knife that was sheathed against her leg. The assistant rolled her eyes then turned to Mala. “You think I’m afraid of your Barbie doll security guard?” she snorted with disdain. “Hardly.”

“Ambassador,” Mala snapped, ignoring the assistant completely. “You’d do well to keep your assistant in line.”

The assistant smirked at the Spectran. “You’re just upset because you couldn’t catch me. You sent your best bounty hunters after me, but I still got the data to the Resistance in spite of it.”

Mala was caught off-guard by the assistant’s remarks.

“Oh, you don’t recognize me?” The assistant’s voice dripped with contempt. “I was on your Most Wanted List. I probably still am on that list.” She laughed hollowly. “I bet it bothers you that I’m sitting right here, in front of you, ripe for the picking and neither you nor Commando Barbie can lay a finger on me because I have diplomatic immunity now.”

Sarai really did not like this woman’s tone. She stepped forward, ready to protect her mistress, but she stopped short because the Rebellion delegation’s security guard came out from behind the partition and stared daggers at Sarai.

Sarai stopped short. She had another flash, an impression. The guard’s stare was hard and icy. Sarai had seen that look before.

_Or are you imagining things?_

The guard stood behind the Ambassador and his smart-mouthed assistant. He leaned against the wall laconically with his arms folded over his chest and that intense gaze fixed on Sarai. Unlike the other men who stared at her, this man’s stare was heat and ice and unsettling. He looked like he would hurt the Spectrans if given the order to do so. Sarai didn’t think the Ambassador would give such an order, but she was wary of the assistant, who seemed to go by her own rules.

From then on, Sarai was preoccupied. She tried not to look at the man from the Federation, but at the same time, she couldn’t look away. She looked at him furtively. The man looked straight ahead mostly, but occasionally, turned his head slightly to catch her staring at him. Her eyes darted around the room and she felt her cheeks flush.

_You know him._

But how?

Sarai kept trying to puzzle this out. Suddenly, Mala was calling her name. The meeting was over. Sarai stiffened and then moved to pull out Mala’s chair. She stole a glance at the man again.

_You know him._

As soon as the Spectran delegation left, the so-called “delegates” from the New Terran Resistance movement were able to relax, but they kept their guard up. After about five minutes, they were joined by another young woman who appeared to be part of the delegation’s security detail. She looked at Gwen, the woman who played the assistant.

“Well, that was certainly a subtle and nuanced performance,” Lina said to her, sarcasm evident in her voice. “This is intel, not a soap opera.” Gwen didn’t appreciate the review of her performance.

“I think they bought it, Lina,” said Thorsten, the burly man who played the Ambassador.

“I think they did, too,” she replied. “But more importantly, we know for sure that Spectra has Princess and also has control over her implant.”

“I’m going to give Aren our report,” Thorsten said. “He will be pleased. You coming?”

“In a minute,” Lina said. Thorsten and the woman who played the assistant went on ahead.

Lina turned to Jason. He was the delegation’s “bodyguard”. Lina had been in another room, with the surveillance equipment, feeding Jason information through the earpiece he wore. “I saw her face,” Lina said. “I think she recognized you.”

“I hope so,” Jason said, unsure. He’d been wound up too tight before this mission and had worried about how he was going to react when he saw his former teammate again.

“She looked rattled,” Lina said.

“This whole thing is a crapshoot,” Jason said. He didn’t like not knowing if their plan had its intended effect or not. He wasn’t sure that he liked having to wait to see _if_ it even worked.

“I know,” Lina said softly. Then she added, “That had to be hard for you to see her like that.”

Jason’s shoulders sagged in relief. “I thought I was ready, but….” He let the words trail.

“And I bet Gwen’s melodramatic performance didn’t help matters, either,” she added, smiling gently. Jason only nodded.

Lina took his hand and gave it a squeeze. “Let’s go,” she said softly. “It’s a long trip back to base and I can’t wait to get out of this place.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sarai is Hebrew meaning "my princess".


End file.
